iphone case enables the blind to access touchscreens

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/iphone_case_enables_the_blind_to_access_touchscreens_11982.asp
Posted by: hipstomp

Portugal-based designer Bruno Fosi has developed a prototype iPhone case that would enable the sight-impaired to use the device. The silicon case has debossed, tactile logos, icons and characters, yet is still thin enough for the screen to register touches. Used in conjunction with text-to-speech features, it opens up a world of possibilities for those without sight. Not to mention the blind could eke out some extra battery life by turning down the backlight.

Expandable Bookcase Design

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/expandable_bookcase_design_12017.asp
Posted by: hipstomp

We're totally digging the new extendable REK bookcase, by Rotterdam-based designer Reinier de Jong.

REK is a bookcase that grows with your book collection. The more books, the bigger the bookcase. The zigzag shaped parts slide in and out providing as much space as needed. Regardless of the quantity of books REK will always be full.

Also with the different spaces that appear you can arrange your books according to their size.

The five-part bookcase is finished with white high-gloss laminate on the outside surfaces, and warm grey stain laminate on the inside. And this is no one-off concept that will never see the light of day--you can order one right here, if you've got 5,500 Euros.

Ironically, the only way I could afford one of these is if I were to sell all of my books. Man, if O. Henry was putting together a gift guide....

Drops in the ocean - and in the sky

From: http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/art_perception/
Posted by John Thackara

Steve Messem (who led our sustainable tourism design camp at Dott 07) writes with news that his next installation - Drop - takes up residence beside Crummock Water in the Lake Distrrict, UK. You'll find his 7 metre (20 foot) reflective raindrop near Haus Point between Buttermere village and Lorton from 7am tomorrow morning (11 Sept). It will stay there - or so Steve hopes - until the end of Saturday.

This the second amazing droplet I've heard about today. Just before Steve's email arrived, I was reading about "cloud albedo enhancement." This is the proposal, first made in 1990 by a scientist called John Latham, that controlled global cooling - sufficient to balance global warming resulting from increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentrations - might be achieved by seeding low-level, extensive maritime clouds with seawater particles. The sprayed seawater droplets, Latham proposes, would "act as condensation nuclei, thereby activating new droplets and increasing cloud albedo". Latham reckons that spraying clouds with seawater on a large scale could help hold the Earth’s temperature constant for many decades.

The scheme is ecologically benign – the only raw materials being wind and sea water - and "if unforeseen adverse effects occurred the system could be immediately switched off, with the forcing returning to normal within a few days". Latham acknowledges that "questions and concerns would need to be satisfactorily examined before any justification would exist for the operational deployment of the technique" - but I reckon he can speed up that process by going into partnership with Steve Messem. If Latham's planet-wide aerosol spraying looked as gorgeous as Steve's Drop, surely none of us would complain.

I'm not being unserious here. I learned about Latham's proposed feat of "geo-engineering" from a book called Kyoto2: How to Manage the Global Greenhouse by Oliver Tickell. Kyoto2 is basically the blueprint for a new global climate treaty. Based on the latest climate science (summarised clearly in the book) a replacement to the existing Kyoto protocol must achieve a level of atmospheric CO2 below 350 ppm. Otherwise stated: if we are to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent "dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system", the North will need to reduce its carbon impacts by 98 per cent.

Put baldly like that, most of us will feel like giving up on the whole enterprise. I know I do. The thing is, Kyoto2 describes a plausible path from here, to there in policy terms. What's missing is the aesthetic-cultural impetus that we'll also need to make that change happen at a political level.

That's where projects like Drop come in: 98 per cent less has got to feel like 98 per cent more.

BOX TOP (pop-up) SHOP in Miami

http://www.core77.com/blog/events/box_top_popup_shop_in_miami_11846.asp
Posted by: core jr

If you're heading to Miami for the 2008 hoo-hah, make sure to check out BOX TOP SHOP, presented by I.D. Magazine, Charles & Marie, and Areaware. They'll be selling limited-edition (natch) design objects from Areaware and Charles & Marie, as well as an edition of 300 I.D. tote bags featuring exclusive graphics by Konstantin Grcic, Tord Boontje, and the Bouroullecs. The space is designed by Rich, Brilliant, Willing (you'll recall them from our Greener Gadgets Design Competition last year), who've devised " a practical solution to create a temporary retail environment":

By using flat-packed hollow volumes (cardboard boxes), a shop is assembled in a single day. The boxes provide the necessary presentation requirements of merchandise using a minimal amount of material--the boxes themselves are readymade components drawn from a variety of manufacturers and industrial suppliers. Rich Brilliant Willing assembles these ubiquitous elements into a cohesive, functional whole: The Box Top Shop.
I.D., Charles & Marie, and Areaware present
BOX TOP SHOP
A four-day retail experience
Design Miami, December 2-6
Miami Design District
4141 NE 2nd Avenue, inner foyer
More info here

Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: Energy Solstices, by Anais met den Ancxt

http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/saintetienne_design_biennale_2008_energy_solstices_by_anais_met_den_ancxt_11861.asp
Posted by: Allan Chochinov

One of our absolute favorite projects in the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale was Anaïs met den Ancxt's Energy Solstices, a project completed as part of her post-diploma at Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design de St Etienne, partnered with EDF R&D. The project was one of many inspiring design investigations in the school's "Réalisme énerg#233;tique" exhibition, and had us scrambling for our cameras and sketchbooks.

In Anaïs's project, the notion of daylight savings time is explored, arguing that its practical advantages have been blurred by technology, and that the purpose today would be to transform the practice "into seasonal rituals with a symbolic dimension."

She's done this with a set of incredibly poetic objects--all housed in a sweet wooden box, with which users can equip themselves for the changes that happen twice a year. Our favorite objects are the wind-up light bulb above, One hour of light (LED, small clock wind-up key, battery) which is used during the Winter solstice--when night falls one hour earlier. Its small clock wind-up key produces a symbolic hour of light.

Another favorite is Recto-verso clock, which slows down or speeds up the time over a four-day period, helping users to "update" their own internal clock. (That's the amount of time it takes us to adjust, apparently.) There are lots of other great items in the set, so be sure to check out the site to see them all.

More pics after the jump.

Virtual skyscraper: Everyone's got a story

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/virtual_skyscraper_everyones_got_a_story_11848.asp
Posted by: hipstomp

A fun blast-from-the-past piece of eye candy is Mr. Wong's Soup'parmtments, a "pixel by pixel" project that had volunteers add their own illustrated "apartments" to an ever-growing virtual skyscraper. With everything from swimming pools and automobile showrooms to Lightsaber academies and zombie attacks, the endlessly scroll-able, virtual Tower of Babel is an entertaining low-res delight. Load it up on your iPhone for the perfect airport lounge time sink.

no more …

http://www.pantopicon.be/blog/2008/11/13/no-more/
posted by pantopicon

ironing shirts, wasting energy, shortening the lifespan of your shirt’s cloth. The Swedish brand Eton shirts has developed a coatingless cotton-fibre which returns to its original shape after washing. In fact bodyheat is enough to iron your shirt as you wear it. The fibre responds to heat - not unlike shape memory alloys) - to maintain its form.

Let’s extrapolate such a development for a second: imagine a world in which no shirts need to be ironed any longer. Consequences: significant decrease of energy usage since irons no longer need to be heated, presses are no longer necessary, thereby also increasing the lifespan of the shirt since the cloth is spared from several aggressive interactions. Combine that with a waterless washing machine such as Electrolux’ Airwash system. In terms of saving the environment. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how energy- & eco-efficient the production of the special cotton fibre (and the rest of its lifecycle) is before we can truly assess its impact. From a socio-economic perspective however - like any technological development which renders human (inter)action obsolete - the no-iron cotton fibre - if used on a large scale - might put extra stress on or obliterate ironing shops.

On a higher level of abstraction: think of all the kind of products which nowadays, because of their systemic or material makeup, require labour (implying usage of all kinds of other resources) in order to remain functional, usable etc. Windows need to be washed, houses need to be heated or cooled, etc.

What if … changes at the material/systemic level of these products, which nearly all of us use, could make these ‘wasteful cycles’ of energy. If employed at a large scale, effects (both positive and negative) of these changes can often be exponential in nature as they work their way through the chain of reactions linked to the lifecycle of the product. They alter the system of their ‘ecology’, their context (whether bio-, techno- or homosphere). Glass can be self-cleaning, houses can go without or using a minimum of heating/cooling energy, etc.

SNIF tag: Social Networking for dogs

http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/snif_tag_social_networking_for_dogs_11687.asp
Posted by: core jr

If you feel it's time for Fido to get into that whole social networking thing then this may be for you. The SNIF tag is a wireless gadget that clips onto a dog's collar. As you take your dog for a walk amongst all the other SNIF-enabled hounds at your local park, the tag records your dog's erm, interactions and shares the data with other tags.

Back at home, the tag uploads its data to your online SNIF profile, which allows you to share as much personal information with other SNIF owning dog lovers as you can handle. Creepy or cool? It depends on how hot the other SNIF owners are I guess.

For the designer backstory, here's a video clip of SNIF tag production and a Flickr set of SNIF's quest for a production facility together with their industrial designers from Readymade.

It's interesting. I have a dog and I really like this little staff. It is $199, too expensive! 

John Maeda: Line Calendar

Good idea, I can see every second of my life in this calendar.

I Want You To Want Me / by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar

What an amazing project! This program not only is a wonderful interactive installation, but also it is an affectionate art work. It shows the vulnerable but sincere emotions needs of human. I was deeply moved when I saw the small balloons which embrace thousands of people connecting each other and forming a DNA shape. The visual presentation and the background music works very well too. I just can't help to watch it again and again.

When designers anticipate the next Big One

http://www.core77.com/blog/education/when_designers_anticipate_the_next_big_one_11675.asp
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken

A few weeks Core77 featured After Shock, the world's first massively collaborative disaster simulation, about a major earthquake affecting much of Southern California.

It turns out - as one could have expected - that there is quite a lot behind this unique serious game. It is actually part of a larger design initiative The Los Angeles Earthquake: Get Ready, led by Designmatters at Art Center College of Design, that has allowed them "to investigate the contributing role of design in disaster mitigation and public awareness".

Mariana Amatullo, (vice president and director of Designmatters at the Art Center College of Design), just wrote a long article on Design21 outlining the project's philosophy and ambition, that is recommended reading for anyone interested in serious games.

In a recent email to me, she said: "Our hope [...] is that the paradigms for communication created by this project can test the efficacy of different communications approaches in a contemporary media environment, and provide a blueprint for vitally needed mitigation efforts elsewhere in the world."

The project is, in my opinion, also particularly strong and commendable, because of the thoroughness with which it has been prepared, and the sense of civic engagement that drives the people behind it.

Assignment 5

• Theme：

         Genetically Modified Crops for Healing

• Tagline：

         Planting for Health

• purpose/uses/service: 

1. treat illness
   
2. help to prevent diseases
3. improve people's health

• treatment/scenario

1. A soybean is lying on a culture dish.
2. The soybean begins to germinate.
3. It outgrows a stem, several branches and leaves.
4. At the top of the branch, it brings forth a capsule.

• Story Board
  

Story Board 2

Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

• style frame
  
• 
  

8

Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

Assignment 4

Singletown

http://www.pantopicon.be/blog/2008/10/31/s1ngletown/
posted by pantopicon

At the inspiring Venice Architecture Biennale - this year’s edition curated by Aaron Betsky, former director of the NaI - the famous Dutch design studio Droog Design & KesselsKramer showcase S1NGLETOWN.

S1NGLETOWN focuses on the world of contemporary singles. Its relevance is broad, as all of us are likely to belong to this group at some stage in our lives — and likely more than once. In fact, some sources predict that a third of people in developed countries will be living alone by 2026.

S1NGLETOWN is an exhibition that’s also a town, an abstract interpretation of a new kind of urban space. Visitors will be able to walk its streets and interact with its products and citizens, and view their homes.

The concept is a beautiful illustration of a persona-like approach, typecasting different types of singles and imaginatively describe their world, ways of living using their point of experience as a point of departure. Although designed in a beautiful, powerful yet fairly abstract way, one is fully immersed in this ‘view on the world’ being able to walk around in S1NGLETOWN through an exhibition.

wfs outlook 2009

http://www.pantopicon.be/blog/2008/10/29/wfs-outlook-2009/
posted by Pantopicon

The World Future Society recently published their top ten of future developments to keep an eye on in view of 2009 and beyond:

Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030.
Bioviolence will become a greater threat as the technology becomes more accessible.
The car’s days as king of the road will soon be over.
Careers, and the college majors for preparing for them, are becoming more specialized.
There may not be world law in the foreseeable future, but the world’s legal systems will be networked.
The race for biomedical and genetic enhancement will — in the twenty-first century — be what the space race was in the previous century.
Professional knowledge will become obsolete almost as quickly as it’s acquired.
Urbanization will hit 60% by 2030.
The Middle East will become more secular while religious influence in China will grow.
Access to electricity will reach 83% of the world by 2030.
As 2008 flies by and 2009 approaches, prepare for more lists.

obesity system influence diagram

http://www.pantopicon.be/blog/2008/10/28/obesity-system-influence-diagram/
posted by Pantopicon

Within the ‘Foresight tackling obesities’ project, which we blogged about earlier, our friends over at Shiftn created an amazing map(http://www.shiftn.com/obesity/Full-Map.html) depicting the forcefield surrounding obesity. Congrats Philippe & Co.!

The causal loop map provides systemic insight into the wide variety of factors influencing the obesity epidemic. A thorough analysis of about 40 science reviews led to the identification of 108 drivers of obesity, interrelated through positive and negative effects.

Reflecting on the potential of maps like these: a next step of increasing the interactivity of the map could further enhance its value as an information insight or what-if tool. For example, select a relationship arrow and see what the relationship stands for. Or furthermore … select a few drivers, confirm or alter the parameters of their cause-effect relationship, push the action button and see what happens. Or … describe an effect (wishful or to avoid) and see which buttons need to be triggered in order to change the outcome as mentioned. In other words: the map, as an information visualization tool, can be a first step toward a full-fledged knowledge tool.

Storyboard

img040 - Upload a Document to Scribd

Assignment 3

A Multi-Sensory Experience

http://irenepereyra.blogspot.com/2007/08/multi-sensory-experience.html

POSTED BY IRENE PEREYRA

Obviously the web offers a great platform for telling a story, and in the past this was usually done in a very linear way. There was only one way to view information, and really no way to interact with any of the content.

“Interaction Design” in the past only referred to having the user move through the content on the entire site from an information architecture point of view, but didn’t allow any actual interactions or choices within the article or posting.

Now the options are endless. The way we tell stories on-line have become more non-linear, and now allow the user to view the content in any way they choose. Previously static stories (news articles etc.) are now able to offer alternate ways to engage with through streaming web-cam, animation, feedback, comments, sound, video etc.

You prefer reading your information? This is possible. Are you more of a visual thinker? Check out the video. Care to listen to the content while working? Stream the audio. Wonder what other people are thinking? Read the comments.

Web design is moving into a realm where we have to think of all the possible senses, all the possible preferences, all the differences of all the different users, and it’s slowly becoming the most tailor-made experience you can have with a product, brand or service.

This is exciting stuff…

With the up and coming of blogs as a legitimate source for information, Web 2.0, social network sites, and the prevalence of broadband, what “interaction design” means is changing. Web designers are now designing less in the traditional sense (sure we’re still interested in type, color and layout, but it doesn’t end there anymore), and we are now focusing more on designing highly personalized experiences.

Today’s web designers are looking at the whole thing more holistically. Before any design even starts we are now interested in telling a compelling story, and creating a memorable experience. The whole focus has become much more user-centered.

We listen first, and design later…

When you enable your users to choose their own path through your content, and allow them to have a highly interactive and personalized experience you can make them feel less like a faceless user and more like a human being, which sometimes we forget that the users accessing our sites, are well… euhm, actual people.

Good human-centered design is now not only simplicity, support, clarity, encouragement, satisfaction and accessibility, it's also about creating a platform for a highly personalized experience. Allowing the user control of your content is a great way to create affinity and foster positive attitudes towards your brand, company, product or service.

The Pratt Preview of "A Day in the Life of a Networked Designer's Smart Things or A Day in a Designer's Networked Smart Things, 2030"

http://irenepereyra.blogspot.com/2007/11/pratt-preview-of-day-in-life-of.html
POSTED BY IRENE PEREYRA

Tom Klinkowstein and I have been working on this project for about 6 months now, and last Friday was the preview mini-opening of the project at Pratt. Which means, well... it's finished! The project was made for the Singapore International Design Festival and is about an imagined designer's day in the year 2030.

The diagram goes through her day and explains how she gets things done with the help of all her smart things.

We began with 4 presentations, Tom Klinkowstein spoke about "Experience Design", Leo Bonanni from the M.I.T Media Lab spoke about "Living Objects", Anthony Townsend from the Institute for the Future spoke about "Living Environments" and I spoke about "Blogs".

It was really a fascinating night about what the possibilities could be in the future of design.